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Michael B. “Mike” Johnson

Mike Johnson is an Austin, Texas trial and appellate attorney at Gottfried Alexander Law Firm with nearly three decades of experience in Texas state and federal courts. He handles commercial and real estate litigation and defends attorneys, law firms, real estate brokers, accountants, insurance agents, and other licensed professionals against legal malpractice, professional liability, and breach of fiduciary duty claims. Mike also represents professionals in grievance and disciplinary proceedings before the State Bar of Texas and other licensing agencies, and counsels them on ethics and risk management.

Mike began his career at Winston & Strawn in Chicago. Before joining the firm, he spent more than two decades at Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, L.L.P., where he was a partner leading a professional liability defense practice. His results include a full defense verdict for a real estate agent and broker, a take-nothing judgment for a law firm after a jury trial, and a complete defense award in AAA arbitration for a family law firm sued for legal malpractice, along with recovery of the firm’s unpaid fees. His appellate work includes numerous published Texas decisions on legal malpractice and professional liability.

A longtime leader in the Austin legal community, Mike chaired the Austin Bar Association’s Civil Litigation Section in 2019–2020 and served two terms each as co-chair of its Judicial Affairs and Bench Bar Committees. He is a Fellow of the Austin Bar Foundation and a graduate of the Leadership Austin Essential Class of 2007. Mike has written and spoken extensively on legal malpractice, legal ethics, and attorney discipline, including at the St. Mary’s Law Journal Symposium on Legal Malpractice and Professional Responsibility.

Mike earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as Articles Editor of The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, and his B.A., cum laude, in Plan II Liberal Arts and Honors English from The University of Texas at Austin, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Mike is licensed in Texas and admitted to practice before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Seventh Circuits, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Western Districts of Texas, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.